Cloud Rock I

2025

2 Yingde rocks, stainless steel

43.2 cm, 17.3 cm, 21.7 cm

Cloud Rock I is part of the Cloud Rock series and is based on found Scholar Rocks. Scholar Rocks are highly sought-after artifacts in Asian culture. In Japanese Culture, suiseki (水石) or in Chinese Gongshi (供石), both have in common that they are found rocks placed in a crafted base. The complementary human craft amplifies the natural beauty of the rocks. Their shapes are the result of millennia of natural erosion and slow transformation juxtaposing the fleeting notion of the man-made artifact. Together their geometrical and narrative complexities form a microcosm for human reflection and interpretation. Cloud Rock I is made from two natural rocks excavated in the Guangzhou region of Southern China.The rock is held in a base that forms around the 3D-scanned rock.The base is a stainless steel, 3D printed using Selective Laser Sintering(SLS). The rock floats above the base, held by a series of tendril-like extensions.

The work explores the tension between form and aura, man-made objects of perfection, and complex, chaotic forms of nature. It articulates a mathematical process in computer-generated geological formations where the “sintered” sculpted reduction of the original scanned, articulates the Gestalt within the found and computational –bridging the traditional with the contemporary.The artwork speculates how the simulation of natural processes resonates as a constructed cultural simulacra of nature. It might offer an alternative model to Heidegger’s thoughts on technology as a Gestell, being only utilized to exploit the potential in resources through its transformative power and is closer to an Asian-centric cosmotechnic understanding brought forward by Yuk Hui.